The Stanford men’s baseball team learned this weekend that good teams don’t go down easily, but that didn’t stop them in sweeping No. 23 Cal State Fullerton.

Stanford easily took games one and two on Friday and Saturday with scores of 12-5 and 11-7. However, the real fight came in the series finale on Sunday when the Cardinal squeaked by the Titans in the bottom of the ninth when freshman Zach Jones hit a stand-up double to bring in junior teammate Jeff Whitlow for the 6-5 win.

“To win three from a strong opponent is huge for us,” head coach Mark Marquess said. “This was a big weekend for us. The weather was great and we played well. We gave them a lot with pitching, used a lot of guys that didn’t have much experience, but we got the job done.”

On Friday, Fullerton managed to put a run on the scoreboard first when Erik Komatsu came through in the first inning with a two-out RBI single. This lead would not last long, though, as the Cardinal immediately began to break down the Titans’ pitching game. Fullerton starting pitcher Jeff Kaplan was shelled for seven runs (five earned) on six hits and two walks in his one-inning appearance. The Cardinal sealed the deal early in the game by scoring four additional runs in the second inning, building its 9-1 lead.

To begin the bottom of the second, senior Brendan Domaracki led off with a single and was brought in by Whitlow on a triple to end Kaplan’s pitching performance for the night. Reliever Travis Kelly was brought in for the Titans, but could not stop the Cardinal’s momentum.

Junior Jason Castro walked and senior Randy Molina hit his first collegiate home run over the right field wall. The Titans were unable to put anything significant together to tie it back up, and the game ended with a Cardinal victory after eight and a half innings with a score of 12-5.

Fullerton took a similar beating on Saturday afternoon, when the Titans were out-hit by the Cardinal, 15-7. As in the first game, Stanford racked up four runs in the first inning. However, the Titans came prepared for Stanford’s early attacks and cut the lead in half in the fifth.

Stanford’s pitcher, senior Erik Davis, allowed two unearned runs when Fullerton’s Jeff Newman and Josh Fellhauer had back-to-back singles to make it on base and the next hitter, Christian Colon, hit a grounder to Davis, who overthrew the ball to Molina at first.

Stanford extended its lead after the Titan threat by earning four more runs in the fifth and adding an unearned run in the sixth. The Titans rallied in the seventh to close the gap to 9-7 when Stanford senior reliever David Stringer hit the first two batters and walked the third batter to load the bases.

Freshman Alex Pracher came in to nail down two outs, but allowed five runs to score. It was freshman Drew Storen who finally closed out the inning, recording his first collegiate save by getting seven straight outs. Junior Sean Ratliff would conclude Stanford’s offensive outing by hitting a clutch two-out, RBI home run, his first of 2008, to bring the final score to 11-7.

Sunday’s nailbiter was truly a team effort as it took eight pitchers, multiple hits from five different players and five lead changes to finally sweep the Titans. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third when Jones hit a single to left field and was brought in by junior Cord Phelps’ two-out RBI single to center.

Fullerton’s bats heated up in the fourth after two outs when Stanford’s first relief pitcher, sophomore Cory Bannister, walked Dustin Garneau and Jeff Newman. Fullerton’s Gary Brown hit a two-RBI double to right field, but stole an extra base due to an error on the relay throws to home. Bannister got out of the jam after Colon grounded out with the score to 2-1.

Stanford would rally back in the sixth when Ratliff led off the inning with a double to center followed by Castro’s third home run of the season, bringing the score to 4-2 in favor of the Cardinal. It then took three Stanford pitchers to end the seventh inning. Fullerton’s Brown started off the inning with his first collegiate homerun to left field which was followed by a pair of singles by Colon and Fellhauer. The Titans fell just one batter shy of making it around their batting order and added a run in the eighth to take the lead at 5-4.

From the eighth inning on, the game was all Stanford. The Cardinal settled their pitching by bringing in Ratliff from center field to pitch two scoreless innings. Ratliff hadn’t pitched in a game since his freshman year in 2006 and he exited the field pumping his fist after the last fly out.

Sophomore Toby Gerhart began the eighth inning with a single shot to left field which tied the game at 5-5, but it would be Jones scoring Whitlow with a double to win the game, 6-5.

“Nine [Marquess] always asks us to get the job done,” Ratliff said. “Although I didn’t have much time to warm up, you just have to let your adrenaline take over and let your stuff do the rest to get the job done.

“How better to get job done than a solo bomb to tie in the eighth? We battled all day. We had easy wins with the bats on Friday and Saturday, but today we played from behind and had to overcome adversity to get the job done.”

“Today’s game was a nip and tuck game where Fullerton was fighting for their lives,” Marquess said. “A school where you have such a rich baseball tradition is hard to beat anytime. I was more impressed with us offensively in today’s game because we had to battle. We had some big hits, then we would get behind and then we would retake the lead. But I’m glad that we were able to finally win in the bottom of ninth.”

Stanford will need this momentum as the team has a tough week ahead. The Cardinal will head to Berkeley tomorrow to take on California and then Moraga, Calif., on Wednesday to face St. Mary’s. The last series before final exams will be against Texas in Austin.

“St. Mary’s is a great ball club and we have a little rivalry from regionals,” Ratliff said. “It is always great to go to Moraga. They have loud fans that hate you and it’s a great environment for baseball. We always hate playing at Cal because it gets so windy. Both the games on Tuesday and Wednesday should test us.”

“We get another good test like this series right before we break for finals.” Marquess said. “Texas is difficult to play anytime, especially at Texas. This will help us find out where we are. Texas just lost two games so they won’t be happy which means they’ll be ready to go when we get there. It should be fun, but it should be difficult.”